Datasheet

application on a laptop or tablet and offers
industry leading real-time signal
acquisition and analysis.
“We were impressed with it (the
RSA306B), especially the price point,”
Davidson says. “In our business, we don’t
need desktop spectrum analyzers
anymore. We have a lab and we can of
course take our equipment in there, but
mostly we travel around. The size is good
and the price is good.”
Davidson was even more impressed once
he added an RSA306 to his interference
hunting arsenal. “The real-time spectrum
analyzer makes it easy to find DECT
phones because you can see in real time
what the phone is doing as opposed to
just recording or seeing the signal when
your spectrum analyzer happens to
sweeps through it. The real-time spectrum
analyzer is a real benefit to tracking these
down easily,” he says.
Gone too are the days of knocking on
apartment doors. “Now we can tell by the
graphs from the RTWP and splunk that
interference is coming from a European
DECT phone and you just get in the truck
and basically drive right up to it.”
Going back to the hospital example,
Davidson says the RSA306B would have
saved him many hours. “If I would have
had the real-time spectrum analyzer at the
time, it would have been real obvious
where the signal was coming from. I could
have then gotten access to the apartment
building and gone right up to the
apartment where it was coming from. At
that point we didn’t have one and it took a
long time.”
Other applications
Adding the RSA306B with useful displays
like DPX and spectrograms has also
helped Davidson track down other sources
of interference that were previously hard
to spot. One example was an
intermodulation effect that was created
when a couple of antennas in town were
updated. “It wasn’t nearly as obvious on a
regular spectrum analyzer as it was on the
real-time spectrum analyzer,” Davidson
adds.
“Broom stick” antenna used for directional
interference chasing and hooked up to the Tektronix
RSA306B spectrum analyzer.
SaskTel is in the process of equipping
more members of its interference hunting
team with RSA306s, and from Davidson’s
perspective it can’t happen fast enough:
“We also use the RSA306 for other forms
of interference which could be anything
from cellular amplifiers, internet cameras
to garage door openers. We currently
have two units, one here in Saskatoon
and one in the south. For the price of
them, it would be nice for everyone to
have one.”
–
For Further Information
Tektronix maintains a comprehensive, constantly expanding
collection of application notes, technical briefs and other
resources to help engineers working on the cutting edge of
technology. Please visit www.tektronix.com
Copyright © 2017, Tektronix. All rights reserved. Tektronix
products are covered by U.S. and foreign patents, issued and
pending. Information in this publication supersedes that in all
previously published material. Specification and price change
privileges reserved. TEKTRONIX and TEK are registered
trademarks of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced
are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective companies.
06/17 37W-61233-0
“The issue is that DECT phones change
frequencies. You could zoom in on what
you thought was interfering frequency
and it could change frequencies,”
Davidson explains. “We would lose a lot
of time that way trying to figure out
exactly where the DECT phone was, and
why it wasn’t on the frequency we
thought it was. On top of it, if there was
SaskTel phone in close proximity to the
DECT phone, it would actually switch
frequencies.”
In one case a couple of years ago,
Davidson was able to ascertain that
interference was coming from an
apartment building near a hospital, but
from there found that it was impossible to
pinpoint the location of the European
DECT phones. “So I ended up getting
into the apartment building and knocked
on every door which was very time
consuming,” Davidson recalls.
“The real-time
spectrum analyzer
makes it easy to find
DECT phones because
you can see in real
time what the phone is
doing as opposed to
just recording or
seeing the signal when
your spectrum
analyzer happens to
sweeps through it. The
real-time spectrum
analyzer is a real
benefit to tracking
these down easily,”
John Davidson, Technical Assistant in
SaskTel's Technology Division
Happy hunting
Looking for a better solution, Davidson
and some colleagues attended a show in
nearby Saskatoon where they attended a
presentation on the new Tektronix
RSA306B USB-based real-time spectrum
analyzer. This disruptive instrument
combines high performance in a compact
package. It runs in conjunction with the
powerful SignalVu-PC software